Kelly Green
by Kikiria Minerva
Summary: On a distant planet, Master Chief finds himself in a very dangerous position. Can he save himself in time, or will fate lead him to tragedy?


**Kelly Green**

A distant planet in a far off galaxy was burning. A giant crash and an explosion were followed by screaming. The screaming came from a man, a Spartan, crushed under a falcon. The Spartan was pushing at the falcon, trying to shove it off, with his helmet lying next to him. Eventually, he gave up, and Master Chief put his helmet back on and pressed a button to rewind the video feed back to the beginning of it all….

* * *

Master Chief's POV

I was holding an assault rifle in the middle of a battle with some Covenant forces. As I loaded a new clip, I popped up over a rock and emptied the clip into an Elite that was on the other side. I put the assault rifle away and pulled out a magnum while sprinting left towards the sound of gunshots and plasma fire.

When I got to a clearing, I saw three other Spartans behind cover: Samuel-034, Joshua-029, and Kelly-087. I stopped for a second, taking in the sight of them behind boxes, fending off a hoard of Covenant forces, and the girl, crouched back down behind cover reloading her gun. As she was doing this, an Elite with an energy sword jumped on the boxes she was behind, looked back and forth, then heard her cussing to herself, and raised the sword up. Whispering "No", I sprinted toward the Elite and the girl. I dove, and slammed into the Elite just as the girl looked up at him, then emptied my magazine into his chest. All that managed was taking out his shield, so I punched him in the face, which dazed him, and then pulled out my assault rifle and emptied the clip into his face until it was a pile of mush.

I got up and shouted into the radio of my helmet, "Looks like the guests are getting a bit tired of hors d'ouvres, bring on the main course." I heard three voices respond "Roger," "Courtesy of the chef, ha-ha-ha," and "Are you okay?" The last one being from the girl, I responded "Yeah, I'm fine, you?" and, interjected with gunshots, she replied, "Peachy keen, but I'm gonna need you to come back to bed, the other two just aren't good enough." Sarcastically, I replied, "Make sure to remember the toys, ha-ha," then I pulled out a detonator and sprinted back to the clearing. I jumped behind cover, joining her, and asked "You ready?" She replied with sarcasm of her own, "You know I always am." Then I spoke into my radio again, "On my mark…..mark!" which cued an explosion that killed the entire Covenant forces we were fighting.

The four of us got up, sat in a circle on the boxes, and took off our helmets. Joshua looked around laughing and said the guests looked pleased with his cooking. Samuel surveyed the remains quietly, lost in his own deep thoughts. Kelly pushed my shoulder and told me I make the corniest fight puns. I stopped and pulled away from the group, and listened to a message on my radio.

I went back to the group looking down, and Kelly asked me what was wrong. I told them we needed to take out one of the Covenant cruisers. Joshua dropped a few F-bombs, Samuel said we didn't have enough explosives left, and Kelly asked me how we were going to do it. I told them I'd come up with a plan, and we started sneaking through a canyon to find a place to camp for the night.

The next morning, I woke up and began cleaning my gun. Joshua was sleeping on a rock, and Samuel had created a lean-to. I looked around again for Kelly, but she wasn't there. I figured she went for a walk, so I settled down to finish cleaning my gun and wait.

After an hour, she still hadn't come back, so I went looking for her. I turned a corner and found a natural spring, and there was Kelly, taking a bath. She saw me and started screaming at me, as I turned my visor tint up to 100% so I couldn't see any more. I felt a rock hit my helmet and heard her screaming that I should be discharged for harassment, and then she started laughing. I heard the hiss of her armor being put back on, and a second later I was shoved on my back. I turned off the tint and saw her running back to camp. I sat there and laughed for a minute, then walked back to camp.

Joshua tilted his head at me and asked, "Dude….what happened? She came back, kicked over Samuel's lean-to, and ran behind that rock." I looked at Samuel rebuilding his lean-to, and then walked around the rock, only to be pushed off a ledge with Kelly yelling at me to leave her alone. I climbed back up to the top and asked her what was wrong. "I…you're….*sigh*….never mind….nothing, I'm fine," she replied, and put a very smooth, shiny, green rock in my hand and walked away. I put it in the hard case on my left leg.

* * *

I stopped the video feed, pulled my helmet off and set it to the side, reached down to the hard case, and pulled out the rock. I looked at it for a minute, and got so mad at myself and what was going on, that I began pushing on the falcon again. I couldn't do anything, hard as I tried, so I put my helmet back on and continued playing the video while holding the rock. I fast forwarded to a Forward operating base, where we were trying to find a way to get rid of the cruiser….

* * *

We came up with the idea of taking a falcon and a ton of explosives, flying into their ship, planting explosives, leaving, and blowing it up, so we got the explosives, grabbed extra ammo, got on the falcon, and flew away. On the trip, we were attacked by banshees and had to land. Samuel pulled out a rocket launcher, and shot them down while we covered him.

We went to leave, but Samuel said it was useless; the detonation device had been destroyed, and the best he could do was wrap them together so a large impact detonation was possible. Kelly said one of us could fly into the ship, and do it alone. Samuel said it would work, but we needed to figure out who would do it. Kelly volunteered, but I said no. She argued that since she was the one who came up with the idea, it should be her who goes, but I wouldn't let her. She asked for a reason, and I gave her a chip to put in her helmet.

She asked if we could talk privately away from the other two, so we walked for awhile until they were almost out of sight. Then, she turned on me and started yelling. "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU CAN CONTROL ME? I AM NOT YOUR PUPPET!" I retorted, "I'm squad leader, I dictate your roll, and I say your role is to stay and lead Joshua and Samuel." She fired back, "I DON'T CARE IF YOU ARE SQUAD LEADER! WE'RE SPARTANS! WE DO WHAT'S NECESSARY TO SURVIVE, EVEN IF IT MEANS DISOBEYING ORDERS! I'M NOT GONNA…..wait…what do you mean I'll lead team….?"

I told her, "I'm flying the falcon, I'm the best pilot of us four, I'm squad leader, and I make the sacrifice." She screamed "NO!" at me, but I sat down and said "Yes." She walked over, yanked me back to my feet, and said, "John….no." I took her hand, put the chip in it, closed her hand around it, and told her to watch it after I left. As I turned to leave, she asked me what it was, and I asked her to promise to watch it. I turned to leave again, but she grabbed my helmet and put it on herself. I watched myself standing there, through her eyes, and watched the video I had made for her:

_"Kelly, if you're watching this, I'm dead. I'm so sorry for what you're about to hear, I hope you never do have to hear this. If you are, though, you are now squad leader. I'm sorry I couldn't have saved myself. I love you, Kelly, and always have…. Goodbye, Kelly"_

She looked down, looked up at me, and then gave me back the helmet. She had tears in her eyes. Suddenly, she punched me and yelled, "YOU WERE GOING TO WAIT FOR ME TO KNOW THIS UNTIL YOU WERE DEAD? HOW STUPID ARE YOU? DID YOU EVER CONSIDER HOW I'D FEEL? DID YOU EVER THINK THAT I FELT THE SAME? THAT I LOVE YOU TOO? DID YOU THINK I'D BE HAPPY KNOWING THE PERSON I LOVE HAD LOVED ME BACK, BUT NOW HE'S DEAD, AND IT'S TOO LATE? How could you do that...?" She was crying heavily by now, and punched me again.

I held her in my arms, comforting her as best I could. After a minute, she tilted my helmet up and kissed me…. For one blissful second, I didn't think I'd be able to continue. Her lips were sweet, and I couldn't bear to leave her now that I had just gotten her. It seemed so unfair. I whispered in her ear, "I'm sorry," and knocked her unconscious. I told her once more how much I loved her, then ran to the falcon and watched as Kelly, Joshua, and Samuel got into a destroyer and flew away.

I flew to the cruiser and blew it up. Somehow, I survived the explosion, and landed on the ground. The falcon landed on top of me, broke my bottom four ribs, and caused tons of internal bleeding. Pieces of the cruiser came down and lit a 50km radius of the planet on fire, and I started screaming. I was back to where I started the video.

Discouraged, I put the rock back in my hard case, rolled my helmet away, and waited for death to claim me. As I lay there, I hear the static of my helmet radio. I can hear Kelly crying, screaming my name, crying for me to get on the radio. In the background, Joshua and Samuel are trying to console her, telling her I'm gone, but she punches Joshua and tells them I'm alive, I have to be, and she's screaming for me again, screaming for me to answer the radio.

I push harder than ever, and somehow get out, and crawl to my helmet and say hello…. But they're out of radio range, so I walk, and walk….. But I can't walk anymore, and fall down…. I'm lying there, and pull out the rock again. I look closer, and see it's in the shape of a heart….a shiny, smooth, green heart. I make a fist, holding it to my chest…..and die, with the whisper of her name, and the remnants of her kiss, still lingering on my lips.


End file.
